Ruskin Bond

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ruskin Bond

• Does Ruskin Bond smoke: Not Known

• Does Ruskin Bond drink alcohol: Not Known

• When Bond was only 4 years old, his mother, Ellen, got separated from his father, Aubrey, and married a Punjabi Hindu by the name of Hari, who himself had been married once.

• In the aftermath of the divorce, Bond’s custody was handed to his father. However, he soon relocated to his grandmother’s house in Dehradun, after his father lost his life to Jaundice.

• Owing to these regular relocations, Bond spent most of his early childhood in Vijayanagar, Jamnagar, Shimla & Dehradun.

• At school, Bond was usually referred to as an “all-rounder”. Not only did he excel at essay-writing, but he also performed well in debating and sports. Notably, he was the goalkeeper of his school’s Football team.

• Here’s a rare picture of Ruskin Bond from his teenage years. 

• In addition, because of his extraordinary writing skills, he was awarded the ‘Anderson Essay Prize (School)’ for three consecutive years. As a result, a few years down the line, his school, Bishop Cotton, honored him by inscribing his name at the School’s “Hall of Fame.”

• He wrote his first short story, ‘Untouchable’, at the age of 16.

• Following the completion of his schooling, Bond immigrated to the Channel Islands, U.K. in order to pursue his further studies. It was during this time that he started writing his first novel, The Room on the Roof, a “semi-autobiographical” account of an orphaned boy. However, he faced many difficulties while looking for a publisher. In olden days, established Publishers were always reluctant to publish a book by an amateur writer and thus his book release took more time than expected.

• Better late than never, Bond’s book finally found a publisher after months of struggle. The advance money that he received allowed him to come back to Dehradun.

• Back at home, he began working as a freelancer for various newspapers and magazines. Impressed by his writing, publishers ‘Penguin India’ approached him with a contract and since then All of Ruskin Bond’s books are being published by the same company.

• Shyam Benegal’s Hindi Film, Junoon (1979), was based on Bond’s historical novel- A Flight of Pigeons.

• Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is a big fan of Ruskin Bond and has therefore adopted some of his books/stories into movies. While The Blue Umbrella (2005) was based on the latter’s novel of the same name, 7 Khoon Maaf was inspired from “Susanna’s Seven Husbands”. Interestingly, Ruskin Bond and Vishal Bhardwaj are neighbors in Mussoorie and share the same wall.

• To date, he has reportedly written over 500 short stories, novels and essays.

• Since typewriters are outdated and his neck hurts while typing on a computer, Bond prefers writing his entire works by hand.

• He has tried his hand in a number of genres viz. children stories, biographies, horror stories, etc. However, almost all his books share a similar backdrop (mountains, trains, scenery, etc).